The Siren

Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human - a kind, handsome boy who's everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger...but Kahlen can't bear to stay away. Will she risk everything to follow her heart?

The Jewel

Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty - because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring. Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel's glittering facade.

The Assassin's Blade: The Throne of Glass Novellas

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom's most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful and ruthless Assassin's Guild, Celaena yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam. When Celaena's scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes - and questioning her own allegiance. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies alike, and discovers that she feels far more for Sam than just friendship.

Once Upon a Prince: The Royal Wedding Series, Book 1

A royal prince. An ordinary girl. An extraordinary royal wedding. Once Upon a Prince, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by bestselling author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale. Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess - just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn't going according to plan. When her high-school sweetheart breaks up with her instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.

The Glittering Court: The Glittering Court, Book 1

Big and sweeping, spanning the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Cruel Crown: Two Red Queen Novellas

Two women on either side of the Silver-Red divide tell the stories no one else knows. Queen Song : Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary - how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince; the birth of a new prince, Cal; and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life.

Matched: Book 1

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

When 19-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin - one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

The Gender Game

A toxic river divides nineteen-year-old Violet Bates's world by gender. Women rule the East. Men rule the West. Welcome to the lands of Matrus and Patrus. Ever since the disappearance of her beloved younger brother, Violet's life has been consumed by an anger she struggles to control. Already a prisoner to her own nation, now she has been sentenced to death for her crimes. But one decision could save her life. To enter the kingdom of Patrus, where men rule and women submit. Everything about the patriarchy is dangerous for a rebellious girl like Violet.

The Fill-in Boyfriend

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she decides to do the unthinkable...convince the cute guy waiting to pick up his sister to pretend to be her boyfriend for the night. The task is simple: two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Delirium

They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years suffocated by a lie. There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure.

Morrighan: A Remnant Chronicles Novella

Before borders were drawn, before treaties were signed, before wars were waged anew, before the great kingdoms of the Remnant were even born and the world of old was only a hazy slate of memory told in story and legend, a girl and her family fought to survive. And that girl's name was Morrighan.

Paper Princess

These Royals will ruin you...Ella Harper is a survivor - a pragmatic optimist. She's spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she'll climb out of the gutter. After her mother's death, Ella is truly alone. Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control in this heartfelt novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series. What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?

Defy

Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alexa uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alexa can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory. The longer Alexa is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets.

Hex Hall: Hex Hall Series, Book 1

On her 12th birthday, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. Three bumpy years later, after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she's exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. By the end of her first day, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus.

Forbidden: Arotas Trilogy, Book 1

Roseline Enescue didn't ask to become an immortal, to have all of the guests at her wedding slaughtered, or to be forced into marriage with a man whose lust for blood would one day ignite the vampire legend. Willing to risk everything for a chance at a normal life, Roseline escapes to America. But her transition into the human world isn't easy. Mortal men flock after her while cutthroat girls plot her demise. Yet she remains relatively unfazed until she meets Gabriel Marston.

Publisher's Summary

The selection began with 35 girls. Now, with the group narrowed down to the Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's love is fiercer than ever. The closer America gets to the crown, the more she struggles to figure out where her heart truly lies. Each moment she spends with Maxon is like a fairy tale, filled with breathless, glittering romance. But whenever she sees her first love, Aspen, standing guard, she's swept up in longing for the life they'd planned to share.

America is desperate for more time. But while she's torn between her two futures, the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want - and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.

STORY - My husband and friends would probably tease me for listening to this book. The characters are teenaged girls, and the story is a combination of the TV show The Bachelor and the Cinderella fairy tale -- girls competing for a prince. It's chick lit all the way!

In this second book, The Selection has now become "The Elite," with only six competitors left from the larger original number. There are rivalries between the girls, as you might imagine. The main character, America, is not sure she's over the relationship with her old BF, who is now a guard at the palace where the competition is taking place. So there's a love triangle going on during the competition, plus the kingdom is experiencing political unrest and is under attack.

It may be teenaged chick lit, but there's a lot that's going on in the story that I find totally enjoyable. It's a light, easy listen, with lots of young, innocent romance thrown in. I might be stupid at my age for enjoying this series, but I do. I can't wait for the third and final book to come out to see how everything ends up. (These books must be listened to in order, as each one leads into the next).

NARRATION - The reader has an unusual way of reading which I can't quite describe. It sort of bothered me for maybe an hour into the first book, but after that I thought she was perfect for the rest of that book and this one as well.

OVERALL - For females about 15 and up. There's no inapproprite language or situations. It might be too immature for some listeners, but not this one.

Just wow! Again, I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book. Like the Selection there were so many bad reviews that I almost didn't get this book. So glad I didn't listen to the haters. This book was amazing. There were so many twists and turns and I enjoyed learning more about the world that Kiera Cass has created.

I can sympathize with those who hated the love triangle. It's frustrating, but isn't that what a love triangle is suppose to do? Otherwise who cares about it?? This is suppose to be about a young girl who is confused and has a huge decision to make under a stressful situation. I really felt sympathy for her character. And I can totally understand how confused she must be over Maxon and Aspen.

I don't get the negative reviews, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you enjoyed the Selection then I'm sure you will enjoy this one too. Just don't expect everything to be wrapped up and given to you with a bow on top. This is a trilogy and there is still more to come. This 2nd installment definitely left me wanting more and anticipating the final installment.

Normally I can easily predict the twists and turns of a book, especially a young adult novel, but with the Elite I was put n a roller coaster of twists and turns that I never saw coming. The evolution of characters was so amazing! I know you may think a series that is basically an elongated love triangle could not possibly have any large twists beyond the main character picking one person over the other. But Kiera Cass certainly did so and more. Not only that but the maturity in the storyline gave the plot so much more of an edge. I can not wait for the next installment of the Selection series and I look forward to other series from Kiera Cass.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Elite to be better than the print version?

Possibly - the narrator is a bit wooden.

What other book might you compare The Elite to and why?

Not sure about a book, but this is has The Bachelor pegged. I wouldn't compare it to the Hunger Games - which is far more brutal and way more is at stake.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration is wooden but the male voices are okay. Didn't you just ask me about the audio version? I suppose I would have more to say if the narration was stellar but it's not.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Grrrrrrllll... America has some serious issues. I really got irritated with her. LOVE TRIANGLE? I can't understand some of the choices she made and I kept having little heart attacks thinking she would get caught. Girl needs to pick a side. It was frustrating to watch her make demands but not do the same - hypocritical nature at its finest. And Prince Max, I'm not sure about him yet, but he's kind of got to play nice with all the girls so I'm not sure why she's all angry that he does. She' hasn't given him any assurances yet so why does he have to toss everyone aside with blind trust? Oh.... you'll see. Just listen to it. It's good.

Any additional comments?

I would say - don't be in the middle of anything, like, oh, grad school, when you listen to this. It will keep you from doing homework because every moment leads you to the next.

I cant. I CAN’T! If I never read another book with a love triangle it will be too soon. I loved the first book in this series. It was a fun lighthearted distopian which is not easy to do, and I really enjoyed it. This book... this book frustrated me more then any book has in a long, long time. Pretty much no story line but the ridiculous love triangle that goes nowhere by the way if anything it only gets more complicated.

America made every single bad decisoin she could think of and we endend this book exactly where we started.

Sure there are still some fun aspects of this book that made the first one so great, and yes, I will be reading/listening to the last one, but The Elite fell so short of my expectations I can hardly believe it.

If you can’t help but find out what happens next then listen to this one at your own risk. Maybe after this warning you will be able to enjoy it more. Good luck.

This book keeps making me angry that the stupid 17 yr old keeps making horrible decisions. And even worse, keeps getting away with them. Any boy, much less a prince should have given up on her long ago. I think the writer is so shallow and story line so weak. So Why then have I not given up? Maybe it's my dogged tonicity to persevere in the face of mediocrity, or my undying hope that there is a deeper story waiting to unveil itself. Perhaps it's because I bought book 3 by mistake first and so I wanted to see the first 2 books through to get my money's worth. I hope book 3 doesn't disappoint, or that will be the end. Happily ever after or not.

Story wise, I seem to prefer The Selection more, the characters just seems to grow more and more indecisive by the chapter, especially America.*HUGE SPOILER ALERT*I don't understand why she keep going back to Aspen when she had already made a decision with herself that she is in love with Maxon. It doesn't help either that Maxson can't seem to make up his mind either even though he said very early on that the whole competition will be over once America decided that she wants him, yet the first thing he did was go off and date other women.*END OF SPOILER*However, despite all that, I did enjoy the revelation of the bigger underlying plots of the story hinting about the motives of the rebels and Maxon's family.It was all so gripping that I had finished the whole book in one sitting and will be continuing onto the next book, The One. I just hope all these love triangles, squares, pentagon, or whatever it was will go away soon, but I guess it's to be expected given the plot of the story, 35 girls and 1 prince.